Posts by Nate Yapp

Zack Snyder (Dawn of the Dead, 300) is attached to directed Warner Bros. upcoming adaptation of Ray Bradbury's The Illustrated Man. Snyder will also produce the film, written by Alex Tse (who also wrote the screenplay for Snyder's current project, Watchmen), under his production shingle Cruel and Unusual Films. Co-producing will be Denise DiNovi (Edward Scissorhands), Frank Darabont, and Snyder's wife Deborah.

The original book was a collection of short stories narrated by a man whose living tattoos told the future. A previous adaptation from 1969 stars Rod Steiger in the title role and also features Claire Bloom.

Tim Burton's film adaptation of Stephen Sondheim's stage musical Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street will be opening wide on an estimated 1,500 theaters on December 21st. Paramount/Dreamworks SKG had originally planned for a limited release on that day (likely to make the film eligible for a 2007 Oscar) and then to release to more theaters on January 11th. This plan has apparently been rethought after executives, upon seeing clips of the film, realized it had a much broader appeal. The film is anticipated to receive an R-rating, although international distributor Warner Bros. may be asking for cuts to the foreign version (in order to secure a "15" in England, where the R-equivalent "18" means that no-one under 18 will be admitted).(read more...)

Writer-director Jeff Thomas sent us the news that Warner Bros. has picked up his film Fallen Angels for theatrical and home video distribution in the United States via its Polychrome Pictures subdivision. In the film, the demolition of a turn of the century prison grinds to a halt when a 100 year old crime scene is discovered. Hidden deep underground is a chamber filled with the remains of several brutally slain children. As a CSI team arrives at the prison, an even more disturbing discovery is made that will eventually unveil a legion of seven demons and their even more chilling origins: each demon is responsible for one of the seven deadly sins.(read more...)

Intrepid Pictures (Balls of Fury, The Strangers) has acquired The Fourth Horseman, a supernatural thriller about the end of days. The original script was written by Marshall Uzzle and Perry Fair, but Intrepid has assigned to Paul Benz and Steve Tomlin (Snowblind) to do a rewrite. The Fourth Horseman follows a priest who attempts to avert the apocalypse by preventing Death, the titular Fourth Horseman, from rising.

Although it had been long-rumored that actor Bruce Campbell would not be reprising the role of Elvis in Don Coscarelli's Bubba Ho-Tep sequel Bubba Nosferatu, the actor confirmed the news to Fangoria Radio on Friday. Apparently, the issue came down to the script. "[Don Coscarelli and I] got to a few points ... that we couldn't reconcile. I want to keep our friendship, so we parted ways. So I'm not part of that project." Coscarelli is reportedly thinking about recasting the part, but acknowleged to Fangoria that it would be difficult to fill Campbell's shoes.

Bubba Nosferatu's plot as it stands now involves Elvis fighting Vegas-based vampires while dealing with the manipulations of his manager, Colonel Tom Parker (to be played by Paul Giamatti).

More news from Campbell, including the status of the Evil Dead remake, can be found at Fangoria.com.

Sony Pictures showed Fangoria.com the cover art for the October 23rd DVD release of Eli Roth's Hostel: Part II. The disc will contain the full, unrated cut of the film. Additionally, it will include the following features:

A Blu-ray edition released the same day will contain all of those special features plus additional "Torture Factory Footage." The suggested retail of the standard DVD is $28.95, while the SRP of the Blu-ray disc is $38.96.

Seventy-five years ago, Japanese production company Toho Company Ltd. started its life near the Hankyu Railway. Originally named Tokyo-Takarazuka Theater Company, it would grow to be the largest film production studio in Japan. For sci-fi/horror fans, they are perhaps most famous for their kaiju ("strange beast") films, most of them featuring the radioactive dinosaur Godzilla. They also produced Masaki Kobayashi's horror anthology Kwaidan (1964).(read more...)

According to HollywoodReporter.com, Dark Horse Indie is putting together a horror-comedy titled War Monkeys, written by Cleve Nettles. The story involves a janitor trapped in a research facility and pitted against combat-trained Rhesus monkeys. We'll continue to report on this odd-sounding project as more information becomes available.

Dimension Films is running a contest to promote Rob Zombie's remake of Halloween (opening August 31st in theaters everywhere). Go to www.zombieshalloweencontest.com and upload a photograph depicting your take on the Halloween series for a chance to win a screening of the new Halloween and a Rob Zombie prize pack (including a limited edition t-shirt, four CDs, and DVDs of Zombie's previous two films House of 1000 Corpses and The Devil's Rejects).(read more...)

Apple.com has posted the trailer for The Signal. The official synopsis of the film: It’s New Year’s Eve in the city of Terminus and chaos is this year’s resolution. All forms of communication have been jammed by an enigmatic transmission that preys on fear and desire driving everyone in the city to murder and madness. In a place once marked by conformity but now sent into complete anarchy, the rebellious Ben must save the woman he loves from the bedlam in the streets as well as her crazed sadistic husband. But the only way he can tell who to trust or who has given in to violence is by uncovering the true nature of The Signal.(read more...)